Many times, when talking to entrepreneurs and small business owners, I find that there is confusion about the concept of brand and branding. Not surprisingly. It is one of these things that the branding experts have managed to shroud in mystery and fill with jargon charging gazillions for development of brand strategy, brand associations, brand equity and other such fancy sounding things. It is also one of these things that people tend to associate with big business and global corporations. The Nikes, Apples and Googles of this world.

But I am going to let the cat out of the bag and tell you that not only is branding not only the prerogative of big business, but a brand is actually the single most powerful thing you can develop for your small business or startup.

What Is A Brand?

So what is this thing called a brand. First, an important point on what a brand is not. A brand is not just a logo or the designy things associated with a business (“designy” lol … well, let’s just say it’s a word ;) It is a whole lot more. A brand is everything that comes into people’s minds and all the emotions that are evoked when they come across anything to do with your business, product, service or person, depending on what the object of the brand is. So you see, saying that a brand is just the logo and the look of things is a bit like saying that a person is just the clothes she wears – nothing more – and we all know that it is not so. [Read more…]